My father's eyebrows arched and proceeded
to take part in some strange acrobatics. I had just asked
him whether or not he would like to see an $850 power strip. After
the eyebrow exercise, he shook his head like a wet dog and repeated
the gesture, following up with, "What? $850 for a power
strip? That's @#$%ing ridiculous!" I explained,
"Well, this one has a brain."

When I first discovered the Max 2000, I
thought, "Now that's nifty." After learning the
price, I muttered, "It had better be." It is. Not
only does the Max 2000 provide a bunch of outlets, RF/EMI filtering,
surge protection with a guarantee (lifetime equipment replacement),
but a computer as well. The front has an LED display and
IR receiver in addition to four buttons which include a master
switch and three for menu navigation. Ears for rack mounting
are available for $15.

The rear sports a total of ten outlets. Of
these, the two next to the power cord and 15 amp resetable breaker
are unswitched, capable of sensing current draw, and labeled
Current Sense A & Current Sense B respectively. Directly to
the right, Outlet 1 & Outlet 2 can be controlled individually,
as can the three outlet banks which have two outlets each to
their name. The term bank refers to the fact that each of
the two outlets of the bank act as one in terms of switching,
as if wired in parallel to the switch. Further, down the
line, an IR output shares space with a single phone and three
coax loop-through ports, in addition to jacks for wire to be
fit with supplied plugs. These jacks accommodate the Voltage
Sense In, 12 Volt out, ground, and two, 2-way relays. The
whole arrangement allows control of and response to equipment
that operates by such means. Count on me to elucidate the
obvious.

There's also an Allpath Module Connection,
which doesn't do anything on the standard unit, but accommodates
additional protection modules should the need arise.

Metal Oxide Varistors (MOVs) provide the
brunt of the surge protection, clamping anything higher than
200 volts, translating roughly to 140 volts RMS. MOVs get
a lot of flak in high-performance tweak audio, but they're relatively
inexpensive, and they work. If they don't, and your equipment
fails because of it, Panamax will buy you new stuff. I've
yet to see such a device fail (though some have given their lives
in the line of fire). MOVs, according to a friend who's
background is in quantum physics (what do they know about electricity
anyway) do add a little noise to the AC line. I don't know
how significant that noise is, as even simple resistors, and
wire for that matter, have thermal noise unless cooled to absolute
zero. When you consider that this very small amount of noise
is not in the signal path, it becomes even less worrisome. If
you compare the magnitude to say, the noise a Microwave cranks
back on the line, it almost seems silly. .However, the Max
2000, like many of their products, incorporates a balanced second
order filter, comprised of a choke coil and a parallel cap after
the MOVs, significantly reducing high frequency noise on the
AC line. All in all, the arrangement offers more good than
possible harm.

The most interesting aspects of this product,
and the only ones that justify the retail price, are in programming
functions.

Setup

I found the whole procedure quite pleasant. After
taking the manual to the bathroom for 15 minutes, and since losing
it, we were ready to fall right in.

Upon insertion of the power cord into a
live AC outlet, the LED display reports on the suitability of
the ground and polarity. Should the Max 2000 deem either
unsuitable, it will inform the user of such and state that operation
under these circumstances will void the warranty. In this
case, I strongly recommend fixing the outlet, because if something
goes wrong, you're the one who's burnt, especially if you're
standing in a puddle of puppy urine at the time you lay hands
on a live chassis.

The menu buttons navigate up, down, and
select. When the LED displays an up arrow, the up button
will tier back to the previous menu. Otherwise, both up
and down scroll through the currently selected menu, and the
middle selects the next menu, the function to edit, or the confirmation
of that choice.

The first section is the Configure
Menu. The user can set the Overvoltage level anywhere
from 128-140 volts. Should the line voltage exceed the selected
value, the Max 2000 will disconnect from the power line. Likewise,
the user may set the Undervoltage level anywhere between 90-110
volts, which will cause the same thing to happen in the case
of a brown out. I chose a minimum of 100 volts, and a maximum
of 130, and it never turned off.

Display Brightness may be set 0-3, providing
four levels of illumination. The display mode may be kept
Active, which keeps it lit always, or put into Sleep Mode, which
dims during periods of inactivity (the Max 2000's inactivity,
not mine).

Triggers are then set. A trigger to
the Max 2000 is used to set off programming sequences.

Current Sense A & B are configured
separately, but function identically. If not enabled, they're
both just unswitched outlets. If enabled, Max 2000 measures
the current draw of the equipment in standby/off and on conditions. If
the difference is sufficient to detect, it uses the change of
power requirements of that component, such as a CD player, preamp
or TV, as a trigger. If not, it disables the current sense
feature. Once enabled as a trigger, it can be given a name
other than Current Sense A or B. Choices include Audio,
Video, Audio/Video, VCR, TV, Laser Disc, DVD, CD Player, Sound
Processor, Receiver, Preamp, Cassette, and Projector.

The Master Switch can be used as a simple
On/Off for the whole array, a specific trigger, or disabled.

Voltage Sense can be set up in the same
way as the current sense outlets, except of course that it doesn't
sense current draw, but voltage present at the input.

Lock Settings allows the person who sets
the Max 2000 to keep other people from messing with it. In
order to lock or unlock, the user most prove worthiness by pressing
a secret sequence of buttons.

Restore Default restores the original settings
that come from the factory.

View Stats allows the user to see the minimum
voltage and maximum voltage since the last time the stats were
cleared, as well as the Software version. During my testing
of the unit, the AC line voltage varied anywhere from 104 -124
volts. It usually stays between 117-122 volts, but when
a couple of large power amps kick on with a microwave and refrigerator
already online, the current draw dunks the AC voltage substantially.

Programming the Outlets and Relays
is different than most systems
which execute macros. Instead of assigning a sequence of
commands to a trigger, we assign triggers to commands, and every
command has a different delay. Because of this, the programmer
must lay out the desired events ahead of time. Commands
can respond up to four minutes after the trigger. They can
also respond to more than one trigger at a time. Essentially,
the user tells the command, such as turning power on to an outlet,
whether or not to respond to certain trigger, and how long
to wait before responding. Only one delay time is possible
per command. The outlets and relays are pretty much the
same in this regard. The IR commands are learned through
the front receiver, and then individually assigned to triggers
in the same manner, but also include a variable that will repeat
the function up to ten times. IR commands may be labeled
Power, Vol Up, Vol Down, Mute, TV/VCR, Input, 0, 1, 2, 3, 4,
5, 6, 7, 8, 9, Stop, Enter, and Play. That doesn't mean
that other IR commands can't be used, only that the display won't
show an accurate description of the function.

I used the Max 2000 at work, turning on
amplifiers in sequence, and at home I utilized the menu, learning
IR commands so that when I turned on either my laserdisc player
or a VCR, the TV would power up. As cool as that is, it's
only a taste of what the Max 2000 can really dish up.

After scratching up a piece of paper with
a pen for about half an hour, I worked out some useful sequences
for a system containing an overhead projector, a motorized screen,
motorized shades, a VCR, DSS, Cassette, Minidisk, CD player,
DVD player, surround processor/preamp, 5 channel power amplifier,
and powered subwoofer. The configuration required running
jumpers between the relays, the 12 volt output, and the Voltage
Sense input. It also requires an outboard IR connecting
block (available from Xantech) and a bunch of IR emitters to
attach to the surround processor, the DVD player, and the CD
player. It also requires a couple of floor or table lamps,
as well as a simple power strip to extend the number of outlets.

The Beauty of Laziness

The master switch remains a master switch
in the sense that it turns everything on, in case you actually
want to do things manually. I probably wouldn't use it often,
just because the other options have so much to offer in terms
of cool factor.

The fun part comes when you power on the
CD player. The Max 2000 then sends a command to the preamp
to power up and out of standby. It also powers up the cassette
and minidisk in case of recording needs. Then it turns on
the power amp, turns on the subwoofer, switches the preamp
input to CD, opens the CD player's tray, waits 20 seconds, and
then closes the tray, and plays (you think you are overweight
and lazy now).

Turning on the DVD player also turns on
the preamp and sets the input to DVD, but leaves the cassette
and minidisk off. The power amp and subwoofer come on one
after another, and the tray pops open, ready for a disc. It
doesn't close after twenty seconds, though, but rather waits
for the projector to power up, the motorized screen to drop,
and the motorized shades to block extraneous light from the room. About
20 seconds or so after that completion, it pulls the tray back
in, kills the lights, and brings you to the Menu. If you
don't do it yourself after choosing your options, it will start
playing the disc a minute afterwards, in the case that you had
to go to the bathroom or fetch popcorn, so that your guests could
begin enjoying the theater.

And the Survey SAYS!!!!.....

Cool Monkey. Whether or not the Max
2000 beats out the competition doesn't really matter because
it has none. There are many semi-automation products on
the market, from a macro-capable learning remote to full-blown
home automation systems with touch screens. Some remotes
can execute macros, but none can control the power state of components
that lack specific power on and power off IR commands, leaving
an enormous potential for components to get out of sync should
one of them miss an IR command left to bounce around the room,
or if an eager finger "helps" the system by powering
up a component. Any automation system which can directly
control the power state of components is far more expensive than
the Max 2000. Even touch screens that may cost a few thousand
dollars with very basic programming slip up from time to time
in that regard. When the Max 2000 says turn off, it's off. No
question about it. Even so, none of these other products
provide AC line filtration or surge protection. There are
many AC surge protectors/line conditioners on the market for
less or more than the Max 2000. Many of the better ones are manufactured
by Panamax as well, and most of them render excellent service
in that regard. I haven't seen any that approach
the programmable flexibility and functionality of the Max 2000. If
this product included 16 separate IR commands from an external
source as triggers (probably requiring separate triggers to toggle
on/off) they'd have an even bigger chunk of the market locked. Even
as is, it's not only in a class by itself, it's the only one
who showed up for graduation. The Max 2000 is, by far,
the smartest power strip I've ever met. I feel more sophisticated
for having made its acquaintance.

Colin Miller

&COPY; Copyright 1999 Secrets
of Home Theater & High Fidelity
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